Map of Africa with the western countries highlighted
West Africa is the region of western
Africa generally considered to include these countries:
Cameroon,
Cape Verde,
Chad,
Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville),
Equatorial Guinea,
Gabon,
Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe and
Western Sahara are sometimes considered a part of West Africa.
Colonial boundaries as reflected in the modern boundaries between contemporary West African nations, cut across ethnic and cultural lines, often dividing single ethnic groups between two or more countries.
West Africa is an area with a great span of geography, bioregions, and cultures. It is oriented west of an imagined north-south axis, principally on what is known as the
Bulge of Africa.
The southern and western borders of the region is the
Atlantic Ocean. The northern border is the Sahara Desert, with the Niger Bend generally considered the northernmost part of the region. The eastern border is less precise. Some place it at the Benue Trough, others on a line running from
Mount Cameroon to
Lake Chad, others use the less precise border between
Bantu and non-Bantu.
History
Historically, the area was home to several major African empires, including the
Mali Empire,
Songhai Empire, and the
Ghana Empire. It was one of the world's great civilized regions, with the great city of
Timbuktu being one of the most important centers of trade and learning in the Old World. Prosperous and culturally active states thrived in West Africa for many centuries, although a variety of forces including the
slave trade and climactic change in West Africa led to these states' gradual decline.
Prehistory
Archaeological studies at Mejiro Cave have found that early human settlers, probably related to the Pygmies, had arrived in West Africa around 12,000 B.C.E.
Microlithic stone industries have been found primarily in the region of the Savannah where fairly advanced pastoral tribes existed using chiseled stone blades and spears. The tribesmen of Guinea and the forested regions of the coast were without microliths for thousands of years, but prospered using bone tools and other means. In the fifth millennium, as the ancestors of modern West Africans began entering the area, the development of sedentary farming began to take place in West Africa, with evidences of domesticated cattle having been found for this period, along with limited cereal crops. Around
3000 BCE, a major change began to take place in West African society, with microliths becoming more common in the Sahel region, with the invention of primitive harpoons and fish-hooks.
Ancient West Africa included the
Sahara, as the Sahara became a desert only since around 3000 BC (see
Sahara).
A major migration of Sahel cattle farmers took place in the
third millennium BCE, and the pastoralists encountered the developed hunter-gatherers of the Guinea region. Flint was considerably more available there and made the use of microliths in hunting far easier. The migration of the Sahel farmers was likely caused by the final
desiccation of the Sahara desert in this millennium, which contributed greatly to West Africa's isolation from cultural and technological phenomena in Europe and the Mediterranean Coast of Africa. Nevertheless, the increased use of iron and the spread of ironworking technology led to improved weaponry and enabled farmers to expand agricultural productivity and produce surplus crops, which together supported the growth of urban city-states into empires.
By
400 BCE, contact had been made with the Mediterranean civilizations, including that of Carthage, and a regular trade in gold being conducted with the Sahara
Berbers, as noted by
Herodotus. The trade was fairly small until the
camel was introduced, with Mediterranean goods being found in pits as far south as Northern Nigeria. A profitable trade had developed by which West Africans exported
gold, cotton cloth, metal ornaments, and leather goods north across the
trans-Saharan trade routes, in exchange for
copper, horses,
salt, textiles, and beads. Later,
ivory, slaves, and kola nuts were added to the trade.
Category:Western Africa
de:Westafrika
fr:Afrique de l'Ouest
ko:서아프리카
ja:西アフリカ
nb:Vest-Afrika
pt:África Ocidental
sv:Västafrika
tr:Batı Afrika
zh:西非